The Diocese of Mtskheta and Tbilisi is the united see of the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of Georgia. Mtskheta and Tbilisi were originally separate dioceses. The episcopacies of the two dioceses were first united after the union in 1811 of the Church of Georgia with the Church of Russia as the seat of the Exarch of Georgia. Although separated initially following the All-Russia Sobor of 1917, the dioceses were again united in 1920 after the Church of Georgia regained autocephaly.

History

Christianity came to Georgia in the early fourth century through the missionary work of Nino of Cappadocia and was proclaimed the official religion of Eastern Georgia by St. King Miriam of Iberia (remembered October 1). At the time, the churches in Georgia were part of the Apostolic See of Antioch with a bishop established at Mtskheta. Mtskheta became recognized as the spiritual center of Christian Georgia, being recorded in Georgian and foreign manuscripts as the “Apostolic Church of Mtskheta